Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Week 5 & 6: Whoops! I slacked off a bit.

Alexandria Velez

LDR/711A - DMAB10SG22

Grades through Week 6
Cumulative Score:
59/61 (96.72%)



Possible ScoreYour Score
Week 6
Discussion Questions 3.0 3.0
Comment: You provide evidence that you are reading the assigned materials and other
 student postings and are responding accordingly, by bringing out interesting
 interpretations.  You demonstrate that you know the facts and are able to
 analyze them and handle conceptual ideas.
Participation 2.0 2.0
Comment: Your posts demonstrate a high degree of confidence with the course materials.
 Your contributions to each thread indicate your mastery of the materials
 assigned. Your responses integrate multiple views and show value as a seed for
 reflection for other participants' responses to the thread.
Indivudal Reflection Summary 3.0 3.0
Comment: Thank you for sharing a reflective and applied statement describing how the
 learning, in this course, has affected your thought processes, development, and
 professional disposition. This statement reflects your personal learning
 process, challenges, and moments of discovery, life experiences, and
 interactions.
Week 6 Subtotal : 88
Cumulative Week 6 Subtotal : 6159
Week 6 Feedback:

Week 5
Discussion Questions 2.0 2.0
Comment: You are encouraged to continuing providing evidence that you are reading the
 assigned materials and other student postings and are responding accordingly,
 by bringing out interesting interpretations. You are invited to continue to
 include citations of scholarly literature and or Internet sites that may
 leverage your classmates understanding of the course materials. You demonstrate
 that you know the facts and are able to analyze them and handle conceptual
 ideas.
Participation 2.0 2.0
Comment: You added value by commenting to a minimum of two of your classmates discussion
 questions on two separate days in addition to discussing each of the assigned
 questions thoroughly.  You discussed each of the discussion questions with your
 classmates in a scholarly and inquisitive manner.  Your participation
 demonstrates a desire to leverage your learning while engaged in this course.
Team Paper Leadership Analysis 10.0 10.0
Comment: Congratulations
Your learning team created an excellent collaborative essay analyzing each team
 members leadership style(s) and evaluated how these styles translate into
 specific leadership behaviors and practices.   Your team included practitioner
 and scholar content while integrating the assignment criteria with your own
 words.  Your team essay met the assignment specifications.
Dr. Johnny
Individual Reflection Summary 3.0 3.0
Comment: You described how the week's learning has affected your thought processes,
 development, and professional disposition. This statement reflected your
 personal learning process challenges, moments of discovery, life experiences,
 and interactions.  You demonstrate value received as a result of the
 discussions and assignment that were conducted this week.
Week 5 Subtotal : 1717
Cumulative Week 5 Subtotal : 5351
Week 5 Feedback:


Week 5 
Discussion question #1
What is power, and what is the relationship between power and leadership?
 
My response
My perception of power in an organization means that an individual or group has the ability to make decisions for the organization and individuals in that organization.  In an organization, individuals might recognize power based on the title and position.


The hierarchy of power and leadership displays the connection and relationship between the two.  For example, in the organization I work for, the founder/CEO is the highest position; under him are the CTO, COO and CFO, and so on.  The leader and person in the position of power can be one in the same.  The person who has the most power has the ability to make the decision that the followers need to adhere to.  However, the person in a position of power is not omnipotent and can be overthrown in some organizations or hierarchies.  Furthermore, the power that one might have in an organization can be positive or negative.  The one in the position of power may make impulsive or unsuitable decisions based on their inexperienced ideals or emotions.


Discussion question #2
Describe a situation in which you have acted as a transformational or transactional leader.
Were you successful or unsuccessful? Explain.
What type of power did you use?
Was this use of power the most effective for getting the results you wanted? Explain.


My response
Describe a situation in which you have acted as a transformational or transactional leader.

As a web product manager for my current position, I have had to do some closely related responsibilities to what a project manager does but with the exception of making sure the product meets both the requirements of the client with objectivity to the overall end-user experience.  My responsibilities in the organization may encourage me to practice a transactional leadership method rather than a transformational one.  For example, when I receive a large project, I need to follow up with the developers, data processing, and systems operations to ensure that their parts are on target with deadlines and meet the specific requirements tasked to them.  In addition, many times when our team completes a large project on time and satisfies all of the requirements, we have rewarded them with a lunch, or an after work event, like bowling.

Were you successful or unsuccessful? Explain.
I believe that I was successful as I still have my current position.  I only say that because I am new to this position and we have had many team lunches from the overall productivity from using transactional leadership methods.



What type of power did you use?
My influence over the team is powered by my charisma, enforcing the business requirements, assigning tasks, and using my experience with people in development via “influence tactics” (Wren, 1995, p. 339). 



Was this use of power the most effective for getting the results you wanted? Explain.
This power is most effective in the web development environment of a business. Since I was also once a web developer, I have very specific knowledge of the processes, flows, and structure about how web development is perceived and accomplished.

Reference
Wren, J. T. (1995). The leader's companion: Insights on leadership through the ages. New York: The Free Press.



Team paper
Note:  I am only inserting the portion I wrote myself.


Individual reflection summary
Post your reflection by creating a 150-200 word reflective statement describing how the week’s learning has affected your thought processes, development, and professional disposition. This statement should be a forum for you to reflect on your personal learning process, challenges, moments of discovery, life experiences, readings, and interactions. Ideally, you will use these statements throughout the course and the program to document your own development as a scholar, practitioner, and leader, and to reflect critically on the changes that occur during this process.

My response
In this week I have learned that there are different types of power and how it is used to influence others.  From the readings and self-assessments, I have learned there are several different power attributes: reward, coercive, legitimate, expert, and referent.

Also from the self-assessments, I found that I am more of a laissez-faire type of leader from the self-assessments.  In terms of individuals in the web development field that already have the expertise to do the work, this can be an effective approach as it lets the developers do the work with checkpoints to see their progress and the status of the work.  I think I would adjust my leadership style depending on the type of position and requirements if necessary.

In this week, there were also some challenges with our team's assignment.  It was a great learning experience as we all worked together to create the essay that meets the requirements.  We overcame some misunderstandings of the assignment, we made revisions to our context, and we have cooperated in bringing the team assignment together.




Week 6
Discussion question #1
What is innovation? How does innovation align with leadership?

My response
Innovation is something that is new, like an idea or vision and "makes new things possible" (Wren, 1995, p. 467).  For example, new technology brings innovative ideas and different perspectives of how technology can be used.  New technology is also one of my favorite things to research, especially the robotics area.  Innovation can align with leadership in a way that allows for the leader to understand what the future might bring and to take that knowledge to benefit the organization.  Leaders in an organization should "stay abreast of the latest innovations and aware of their potential for helping to run every aspect of the business more effectively" (Wren, 1995, p. 467). Innovation in an organization also is not limited to businesses and can be found almost anywhere.

Reference
Wren, J. T. (1995). The leader's companion: Insights on leadership through the ages. New York: The Free Press.


Discussion question #2
What are the boundaries of innovation in your organization? How were these boundaries established? How do these boundaries enhance or hinder innovation?

 
My response
In my organization, there are some boundaries to innovation.  In order to understand the organization and its goals, it's important to understand that the organization focuses on accomplishing our client's goals to build websites for them.  Our clients have a vision of their website's appearance, and functionality.  We can advise them on the restrictions and benefits of the website's technology as well as provide them with input on the website's user interface to an extent.  The clients have the option to choose the input they prefer or none at all.  So our boundaries of innovation are restricted by the client's wants and needs for their website.  The organization's innovative ideas are also restricted by the company's leaders.  These boundaries were established by the leaders, which are labeled as the CTO and CEO as they are the owners of the company and they have the ability to approve or deny any innovations they believe do not fit into their company's goals.  Some of the boundaries they use do benefit the organization.  If the innovation is not a good fit for the company, they will deny it.  For example, the organization denied certain new automated processes which would replace some employees positions.  The organization did not believe that this innovation was necessary enough to warrant the innovation.


Individual reflection summary
Post your reflection by creating a 150-200 word reflective statement describing how the week’s learning has affected your thought processes, development, and professional disposition. This statement should be a forum for you to reflect on your personal learning process, challenges, moments of discovery, life experiences, readings, and interactions. Ideally, you will use these statements throughout the course and the program to document your own development as a scholar, practitioner, and leader, and to reflect critically on the changes that occur during this process.

My response
In this week, I have learned that there is a relationship between leadership and innovation.  Innovation’s relationship with leadership allows for a leader to try to look towards the future and to take that knowledge to benefit the organization.  I also learned that there are different types of innovation as well.  In the leadership role, one will need to be innovative to accomplish certain tasks as well as enhance the organization's goals.  I have also learned that there are also boundaries and restrictions to innovation.  Many companies are not always interested in the innovation that is proposed to them; however it is still important to propose those innovations so that the organization can be aware of the changes that are occurring in their market and possibly incorporate new information into their organization in the future to keep up-to-date.  Additionally, organizations need to incorporate a strategy with innovation so that they are prepared for any problems that might arise in the future.